Such a large human impact on the melting ice means that the efforts required to sufficiently slow global warming may have been underestimated until now. For Min, “we need to be more ambitious in reducing CO₂ emissions and preparing to adapt to this faster warming of the Arctic.” In fact, his study concludes that even if global temperature rise is limited to 2°C, summer ice will be gone by 2050.
And the researcher recalls the effects that this will have on our climate: “An increase in the extreme weather phenomena that we are currently experiencing, such as heat waves, forest fires and floods.” In fact, the melting of the ice is leading to changes in the jet stream that flows through the northern hemisphere traverses, a rapid flow of air that helps regulate the climate of North America, Europe, and Asia.
Mark Serreze, director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado, sums up the situation pretty well: “The key message is that we are losing control of sea ice.” Especially since the more the ocean absorbs, the more heat it absorbs exposed to it, leading to a vicious cycle that will become increasingly difficult and prolonged to reverse or even stop.
Of course, this is not about abandoning the energy transition, which is developing rapidly, because global warming above 2°C could have far more devastating consequences. However, the year 2030 is less than ten years away, and on the scale of our society that means… tomorrow.